Stewart Dolin, a 57-year-old former co-chair of Reed Smith’s corporate and securities practice, left the office nearly seven years ago and entered a Blue Line station for the Chicago Transit Authority. He then hurtled himself in front of a northbound “L” train.

Dolin’s death on July 15, 2010, was quickly ruled a suicide. But civil litigation grinds slowly, and now a federal jury in Chicago is being asked to rule on what led to Dolin’s demise.